[Spoiler] Kaiser has a plan

[roland of gilead]

he still has the niter issue.

anyway we will crush him especially if he has the oil we need. let's go all Britain on his ass.

[Kaiser]

Oho big decision, Ichabod has finished his friendship with Suboptimal and asks for joining his war against Woden while offering joining our war against Suboptimal. I am holding off finishing my turn until you have chimed in, but this is a major decision to take.

Open up a new front on the NW but gaining a significant buff in our war against Suboptimal. What do you think? Is it time for a world war?
(we have one oil near GM btw)

[roland of gilead]

It is interesting.

How would it affect us amenities wise?

would mostly be a false war with woden. At very least initially.

the real issue is our geography. ichabod loses nothing in terms of safety and gains a lot.

we though open up a new front. can we hold it? perhaps wooden get's the message when we don't go on the offensive. more to lose for us. Can we get a bit of something in the deal. even just some gold. is that worth asking.

[roland of gilead]

oil is ok i suppose. any others that can be got?

[Kaiser]

Please check the turn and then let us discuss shortly, save attached (I reloaded and executed everything identical outside of opening the diplomacy with Ichabod)

[roland of gilead]

give me 45 mins or so.

the question i suppose is what will woden do. will he suddenly come after us i don't think he can without ichabod going after him from behind.

we gain +5 CS which is great what do we lose?

[Kaiser]

The oil distribution is a biggie this game, look at this



Woden has a safe oil backline here with loads of offshore oil to come later (when the tech is there). This was a contested region with Ichabod for some time, but the oil locations are more on Woden's side.



La venta has also been sitting on some Oil, which is definetively Woden's backline.



As well as this spot, just 4 tiles away from Woden's capital. Granted it is also 3rd ring of Bologna, but the only way of getting this would have been by conquering Bologna, researching Refining before Woden and buying the tile.

2 more sources right next to each other in the NE of this picture, these could arguably have been ours and would have forced us to settle a poor region, likely with a coastal city spot (which I wanted to avoid). One of which is waterbound, so only usable later in the game



Ichabod has access to 2 land and 2 waterbound oil sources, all in immediate vicinity of his capitol and likely not in competition with others. Bad for him that he lost his 2nd city, which would have claimed 2 oil resources for him.



Suboptimal has 3 land and 1 waterbound oil, all near his capital although farther apart than Ichabod. Nevertheless, all clearly in his sphere of influence without competition for them, especially considering the map layout.



The central region of the map has only 2 sources.
1 near GM (8 tiles away from our capital, 8 tiles away from CMF'S capital)
1 near Kings, CMFs Capital, I hope for him he has some more in his territory we cannot see, which I believe to be likely.

So as a summary:
Woden: 2 in his territory (near cap and La venta) + 1 in the disputed region with Ichabod + 4 waterbound in the disputed region with Ichabod +X in the fog
Ichabod: 2 in his territory + 2 waterbound in reach of his 2nd city (already razed) +X in the fog
Suboptimal: 3 in his territory + 1 waterbound +X in the fog
CMF: 1 near his cap +X in the fog
Kaiser: 1 in competition with CMF, 1 far N in an uninteresting spot + 1 waterbound just next to it + 0 (no fog)

I am a bit disappointed right now, because that does not look balanced at all, especially that there is no safe oil resource near our capital considering that we already have a strategically diffult middle position. We are lucky that we were able to claim the one near GM/CB, as CB could have easily been a CMF city instead as it is first ring for his capital while 2nd ring for ours.

All in all this means we can wield a maximum of 2 advanced military units, until we wrestle away "The Grey Havens" and "The Black Gate" from Woden. Even then we are limited to 4 later 6, while Woden still can field 6 later 14 advanced units.



Looking at these promotions, we probably need to raze both cities if we can and then need to resettle E of Black Gate, as we are not able to hold any coastal cities against Woden's Navy.
I am not sure if it is easier to achieve this or to take CMF's capital.

This is not taking any hidden resources into account and a big blow to our game situation. While I percived us to be in a head to head with Woden with us pulling slowly ahead, Woden will be able to field a military 1 or 2 steps better than us. We have a very tough decisiion ahead about which two units to build out of:
- Infantry -> Mechanized Infantery
- Tanks -> Modern Armor
- Biplanes (luckily Fighters and Bombers need Aluminium instead)
- Artillery
- Destroyers
- Missile Cruiser
- Submarines

Our game just might have turned extremly defensive, as we will have to use Niter units (FC, MM, PS, Curassier, Cavalry, Bombard +2 Artillery) to fight against more modern militaries despite being the leader by a big margin. We will be able to get to Machine Guns and the Aluminium units as well as all Anti-Cav units, as these all do not require Oil.

We probably need to rush Advanced Ballistics and then go for a nuclear solution to this game to be able to win it, I will step away and check later for your feedback

[roland of gilead]

CMF can be taken for sure.

soon enough we will be able to assault him with armies.

speak soon.

[roland of gilead]

you are right you have been hard done to in oil. You did get some really nice early game land in return i suppose.

I guess it makes the decision easier here we need to go on the offensive. So take the deal?

Start properly arming up. Run the HS projects. come off the defensive.

Because if we don't we would fall behind in the oil era.

I bet CMF has more oil he has the terrain for it.

roll the dice and see if we can leverage glory? You are only 9 turns away from armys

The only other option is turtle and try to go to space but why would they allow that and woden already has more cities etc.

[roland of gilead]

will need to watch venice if taking it.